Backyard Pizzaiolo Log

[BackyardPizzaiolo]

I'm going to start a new topic for my pizzas. I'm totally new to this and I have been studying this forum and YouTube for a few months now. I finally baked my first pizzas and I'm really pleased with the result, with lots of room for improvement of course. Hopefully I can share back and maybe get some advice and critique?

I used the following recipe, which I lifted from the VPN rules and a little help from the Cal Bal calculator (http://www.calbal.altervista.org). Checked yeast level against Craig's chart and it was pretty close.

2h bulk ferment + 6h in balls @ 21C/70F
3 balls, 250g each. 1 Marinara and 2 Margheritas
473g flour (100%)
263g water (55.6%)
0.41g IDY (0.087%)
14.2g salt (3%)

Here are my issues/observations/questions:

- VPN says to knead for 20 minutes and that seems like a really long time. My KA "Classic" had a hard time towards the end, so I stopped at 17 minutes before burning out the motor and stripping the cheap gears. Looking for info on the optimal kneading time!? And I might pick up a KA Pro 600 on the cheap somewhere.

- Kind of difficult to stretch the dough as it was quite springy. If I pressed the ball with my finger it would spring almost all the way back up. I managed to spread it to 11 inches by pressing and then gravity stretching over my knuckles. I don't know the "stretch and rotate" method yet. But the thickness was even. With 250g balls I should be targeting 12 inches in theory?

- I used the Belgioioso sliced fresh mozz from Costco. Super cheap and I knew that. I tore pieces off from the slices and I think the transition with the tomato sauce was too sharp, and the taste wasn't too great. I picked up a RD membership so we'll see what I can find there.

- PP aluminum launching peel was a little sticky even with a bunch of flour on it. Are slotted peels better for launching pizzas? Maybe I can carve some slots into this one? Or are wood peels less sticky?

- 90+ seconds bake time too long due to burner not at 100% during bake. I had misinterpreted the manual but now realize I should crank up the heat to the max before AND during the bake. I'm targeting 60 seconds. The pizzas weren't burnt and the tops and bottoms were evenly cooked.

- The dough came out decent, but the crust was a little dense. It was airy but the voids were rather small and consequently it felt a little bready. How can I achieve a more airy and light crust?

Ingredients used:

- Caputo Pizzeria flour
- Deer Park spring water
- Fleischmann's RapidRise IDY
- Diamond Crystal Kosher salt
- Cento "Italian" tomatoes (not Marzano, need to compare these to the Marzano)
- Kirkland Spanish EVOO
- Homegrown basil/oregano for the Marinara
- Garlic for the Marinara

Next steps, I think?:

- Increase balls sizes to 275g and stretch better to achieve 13 inches.
- Increase hydration to achieve a softer crust.
- Try not to spill a bunch of tomato sauce when launching pizza

[Pete-zza]

BackyardPizzaiolo,

Your Classic KitchenAid stand mixer uses a dough hook--one that looks C or J shaped. The VPN does not contemplate that such a mixer be used to make a Neapolitan style as is typically made in Naples. One of our members, pizzanapoletana (Marco), once did a survey of the commercial mixers used in Naples and reported on his results at Reply 9 at:

https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=1660.msg15318#msg15318

I once posed a question to Marco about the knead time that was advocated in one of the Italian documents, and he responded as follows in Reply 164 at:

https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=1298.msg13809#msg13809

Note Marco's comment on using a KitchenAid or similar mixer.

See, also, Marco's famous "crap" comment at Reply 164 at:

https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=1298.msg13378#msg13378

If you are able to get your dough making procedures where they should be I think a lot of the problems you experienced are likely to go away. For example, in my case using a standard KitchenAid mixer, I would start with the paddle attachment and gradually add the flour to the water in the bowl and once the dough gathered around the flat beater attachment with no dough sticking to the bowl, I would switch to the dough hook and gradually add the rest of the flour and mix and knead until the dough ball formed. The total mix and knead time was far less than 20 minutes.

Peter

[BackyardPizzaiolo]

I appreciate your answer Pete. For the next batch I will reduce how long I work the dough in the KA and go by feel/eyes to decide when it's done. I will not change anything else to keep things controlled.

It seems like the gluten net was too tight, because it's a rather low hydration and I worked it too long to conform to the VPN recipe, which is 10+20. And probably intended for a twin diving arm mixer as they use in Naples. Would be cool if they sold a mini one for home use. I guess my best bet is a spiral attachment from KA.

[Arne_Jervell]

I appreciate your answer Pete. For the next batch I will reduce how long I work the dough in the KA and go by feel/eyes to decide when it's done. I will not change anything else to keep things controlled.

It seems like the gluten net was too tight, because it's a rather low hydration and I worked it too long to conform to the VPN recipe, which is 10+20. And probably intended for a twin diving arm mixer as they use in Naples. Would be cool if they sold a mini one for home use. I guess my best bet is a spiral attachment from KA.

I was thinking the same thing: Spiral attachment might help. With that and a KA, I think 5 minutes at slow speed should suffice.

[rdbedwards]

From the photo, it looks like your pizza could use more top heat.  Are you able to lift the pie into the dome at the end of the bake?

[crawsdaddy]

I was thinking the same thing: Spiral attachment might help. With that and a KA, I think 5 minutes at slow speed should suffice.

I have a 7qt KA with a spiral attachment. Works great--like Arne I use 5 minutes at slow speed, adding flour and water during mix

[BackyardPizzaiolo]

From the photo, it looks like your pizza could use more top heat.  Are you able to lift the pie into the dome at the end of the bake?

I domed it, but my oven was too low due to user error. And I used too much tomato sauce on this one. But the rims are as cooked as I want them to be; This is the pizza I'm aiming for by world champion Attilio Albachiara. I think he won that year:

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